Optical disks are widely used as a form of information storage media because of their large information storage capacity and cost effectiveness. Optical disks may be classified according to the information storage capacity and include, for example, compact disks (CDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs). Examples of optical disks allowing writing, deleting, and reproducing data include 650 MB CD-R, CD-RW, 4.7 GB DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Furthermore, HD-DVDs and blue-ray disks having a 20-GB capacity or higher have been developed.
Optical disks have been used as information storage media for portable electronic devices such as laptop computers or camcorders by incorporating therein optical disk device(s) for recording and/or reproduction. However, there may be problems associated with some of the conventional optical disk devices. For example, where a conventional optical disk device is large, it may be difficult to carry the optical disk device or portable electronic device incorporating the optical disk device. While a slimmer optical disk device is available for portable electric devices, it may be inconvenient to insert or eject a disk into or from the conventional slim optical disk device.
Optical disk devices using a tray-loading mechanism load a disk onto a cassette or a tray, whereas optical disk devices using a slot-loading mechanism automatically slide a disk into a slot that is formed in a front surface of the optical disk devices and has a size as large as the diameter of the disk. The optical disk devices using the slot-loading mechanism may be preferable for use in portable electronic devices than the optical disk devices using the tray-loading mechanism.
Where an optical disk device is out of order, an operating system of a computer in which the optical disk device is installed malfunctions, or a battery of a notebook computer in which the optical disk device is installed runs out, a disk may need to be ejected manually. A structure in which a disk may be manually ejected in case of emergency is particularly needed for optical disk devices using a slot-loading mechanism in which the disk is automatically loaded and unloaded. Accordingly, there is a need for a structure to manually eject a disk, and in particular, a disk ejecting structure suitable for thin optical disk devices.